Journeying | Pilgrimage Holidays | Christian Walking Holidays | Christian Short Breaks

Cost

There are 2 single rooms, 1 double and 1 double en-suite room available.

Prices range from £540 for a single room, £570 for the double room with single occupancy and £610 for the double en-suite room with single occupancy.
There is a discount of £80 per person for two people sharing a double room.

This holiday is fully catered. Breakfast is self-serve from a selection of breakfast foods for you to choose from and there will be a tasty home cooked meal for lunch if at home or a picnic lunch if out walking.

The price includes excursions, art materials and the workshops.

Description

This retreat has been created because the previous one sold out within a day, before many of our readers had a chance to consider it. So, if you missed out on that opportunity for some fellowship, creative fun and walking in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, here’s another wonderful retreat on offer. This one will particularly appeal to the gardeners and plant enthusiasts amongst us, so please do read on.

Like the other winter holidays we have recently offered in the cold dark months of winter, this retreat is about comfort, companionship with other like-minded people, an opportunity to rest and to rest in God. To welcome something new into our life if we choose the creative opportunities that are offered or a time to simply ‘be.’ We invite you to join us for sweet fellowship and kind conversations in the lovely stone farmhouse we will be staying in. Let’s settle around the big log fire after we’ve been out walking or exploring, eat lovely food and allow a time of gentleness for ourselves.

This retreat is a bit different from the others …I can feel myself humming - “If you go down to the woods today you’re sure of a big surprise! …” The creativity on this retreat takes the form of foraging for flowers, foliage and wild food! It’s intended as a way of honouring and offering deep gratitude to our creator God for the beauty and abundance of his creation. It’s an invitation to celebrate and experience a time of renewal and to step out and engage with life as its bursting out in buds and blooms. This retreat opportunity is very special because we have a horticulturist and a professional gardener supporting our walks, excursions and activities when we return from walking. So come with your green fingers twitching and all your questions ready because you will have their undivided attention for 5 days! With their specialist knowledge of plants and the local countryside, we will forage upon the abundance of nature for food that we can later create dishes with in the kitchen. We will go exploring beautiful locations where the early spring flowers will be in abundance and we can collect them and other pretty foliage and berries to create a spring crown or a posy. We will forage for bark, nuts, roots, leaves and other natural treasure to make natural dyes to paint eggs - it is almost Easter and the hens at the farmhouse will have been laying!

For those of us who also like to get out into nature and walk, we will walk together as a group each day and there are delightful circular walks from the house if you want to just wander and explore. There is an itinerary but it is delightfully flexible as we want you to be able to feel at home and relax; to dip into activities or walks if you feel you want to. So, bring your slippers... and your knitting, crocheting, patchwork or embroidery if you have something on the go. There are lots of jigsaws and puzzles if that’s something you like to do on a rainy afternoon or just bring a good book!

On this retreat there is also the opportunity to try some contemporary monastic practices such as contemplation, Lectio Divina and centring prayer. Please bring a journal for journaling, as it’s a wonderful way to reflect and contemplate. It’s a practice that supports spiritual growth and intimacy with God and we can journal together collectively and also enjoy the space to journal alone.

The days will start and end like all other traditional Journeying holidays with a short time of prayers and reflections together in a circle and a beautiful Celtic blessing to see us safely into the night.

Walks and Excursions

Day 1: Meet at 3pm at the farmhouse and settle in and start to get to know each together over afternoon tea by a lovely log fire. Keith, our guest horticulturist for the week, will share his passion and some of his knowledge about plants and Sophie our host, will share her understanding and special relationship with plants and how this informs how she gardens.

Days 2, 3, 4: There will be an opportunity for walking as a group and a creative activity related to the walk each day. It may be that you just would like to rest and relax in your own way and that's ok too. Let’s be spontaneous, flexible and respond to what arises as this is the essence of the retreat. The days will shape themselves and unfold in any way we choose individually or as a group, allowing opportunities for rest, relaxation, reflection and for art, poetry, craft or creative writing. The location of some of the walks will be determined by where certain plants and flowers will be growing as these are what we will be gathering to take home.

The walks and excursions may include:
Welcoming the sun -Before dawn we will drive to a nearby mountain and then walk the short distance to the top where we will watch the sunrise and share a time of quiet reflection before returning home for a delicious breakfast.

Talgarth and Pwll-y-Wrach Nature Reserve.Talgarth itself is a delightful, historic market town with a huge working water mill. In the nature reserve nearby, we will walk in the woods and along the river visiting the pools and beautiful waterfalls. It is the perfect place for nature lovers and for early spring flowers.

The Talybont Reservoir, which supplies 300,000 people with fresh water each day. Standing on its shore, experiencing the vast expanse of water, the huge mountains and forests all around is a magical experience. It’s like being beside the sea, as the wind on the water creates waves and the air smells salty. It's a great place for inspiration and having the cobwebs blown away

The Blaen y Glyn waterfalls and a walk along the Caerfanell River which runs through the Tallybont Forest.The flora and fauna on this walk is amazing, it’s like being in the rainforest - every surface is covered in lichen and moss and is impossibly green.

Brecon Cathedral and a walk along the river

A visit to Gweryfed Walled garden and afternoon tea in the delightful café situated in the huge glasshouse.

Depending upon the fitness and wishes of the group there may be the opportunity to climb part way up Pen y Fan to visit the small glacial lake (Lyn Cwm Llwch) that is cradled in a hollow on the sides of Corn Du and Pen y Fan. When you get there it feels like it’s been waiting for you.

Creative Activities

The creative activities should you wish to join are guided and include making:
A spring crown or a wreath made out of flowers, foliage and other items gathered from our walks.
Foraging for ingredients that are edible and tasty. We will then learn how to prepare and cook them in the kitchen to create a dish we will try at supper time.
Painting/ dying Easter Eggs with natural dye we will make from foraged treasure such as roots, bark, nuts, lichens and leaves.

There are also lots of art materials available for you to use if you are inspired by our walks and beautiful location and wish to draw or paint.

Accommodation

The farmhouse is very spacious, the rooms are large but the ambience is cosy and intimate – we can all sit together in the large sitting room, kitchen or studio to be creative and relax together and there are enough rooms if you just need some space. The house is the home of Sophie, our host, who normally lives there with her 2 children, as well as her cat and chickens. It’s a family home that will become our home and like any old stone farmhouse in Wales it is rustic and a bit quirky. But it is lovely and warm with central heating, log fires and plenty of hot water.

There are 2 double rooms and 2 single rooms. The double rooms are large and have been priced as single occupancy. If two friends wanted to share a double room but not share a double bed, there is room for a simple bed to be made up on the floor (there would be a discount on the price). One of the double rooms is en-suite.
There is a family bathroom that we will all share and a downstairs loo.

Getting there

We will meet at 3pm at the farmhouse in time for afternoon tea.

Train:If you are coming by train please make your way to Abergavenny. We will organise a collection at 2pm at the train station.
Car:If you are arriving by car the address is Wernfigan Isaf, Trallong, Brecon. LD13 8HW

Contact & Booking Form

Pepper (Cheryl)Tettmar is the leader on this holiday. Please contact her for more information and to check that a place is still available and room availability.
Contact her on Mobile no./Whatsapp : +44 (0)7977 163032 cheryltettmar@gmail.com

Once you have completed the Booking Form you will receive an invoice from treasurer@journeying.co.uk for a deposit payment of £200, this can be paid by BACS or by debit / credit card, full instructions will be given in the email. An invoice for the remaining balance payment will be sent from the same email address at the end of January, again payment can be made by BACS or debit / credit card. Please note that our terms and conditions relating to your booking are available on our website and by making your reservation you are accepting that these apply to the booking.

After you have contacted the leader to check that a place is still available please complete the details on the Booking Form